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The Art Gallery Coronavirus Survey conducted by Rachel Pownall and published in the Art Newspaper has received attention from other major publications. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have quoted the research when writing articles about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the art market.


MA Programmes in the Cultural and Creative Industries
Maastricht University offers several Masters Programmes focused on the cultural and creative industries.
The programmes are offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) and tackle a range of a range of industries and fields from literature to visual arts to heritage and fashion. They also vary in approach, with some focussing to prepare students for further study and research and others providing more of a balance between practical and theoretical expertise. Below you’ll fine a brief summary of what these programmes offer. More information is available on the Maastricht University pages.
Arts and Culture
The master’s programme in Arts and Culture focuses on culture in the making. Culture can refer to the products of intellectual and artistic creativity, such as scholarly and literary texts or works of art. It also indicates the cultural practices that shape the everyday life of people and is expressed in their individual tastes and forms of associating with one another. Finally, culture is at the heart of the processes through which people explicate and contest ethical, aesthetic, and political meanings and values. You will study how cultures change, and how these changes are related to societal problems and debates, as well as to global challenges such as climate change and increasing social inequalities.
The Master’s programme Arts and Culture offers three specialisations:
Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education/Kunst en Erfgoed
Contemporary Literature and Arts: Cultural Interventions and Social Justice
Modern Political Culture: Ideas and Discourses in Context
Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology (2 Year Research Masters)
The two year masters looks at the intersection between technology, art and science. The guiding questions in this master revolve around the role of technology in our lives and the ability of technologies and technological innovation to disrupt all domains from food to art, healthcare and architecture. The programme pushes students to combine philosophy, sociology, art and history to become an original researcher.
If you are looking for a programme geared towards professionals, please check out our page on the Executive Masters for Cultural Leadership.
Rachel Pownall featured in The Economist
An article published in the Economist, focused on art-secured lending, featured a quote from Rachel Pownall.
The article explored the phenomenon of art-secured lending which in the past decade has garnered significant interest as it enables collectors to leverage their art collection, making art, typically a very illiquid asset, much more liquid.
Art secured loans come both from established private banks such as Bank of America Private Bank or specialised lenders such as Athena. Rachel Pownall commented on limited nature of specialised lenders as much of the art that would be accepted as collateral, works typically worth $2million by well-known artists, are in the hands of the super-rich clients of private banks.
For the moment, the overwhelming majority of art-backed loans take place in America, it will therefore be interesting to see how the market evolves in Europe.
Read the article here: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/07/06/borrowing-against-art-is-growing-at-a-stunning-rate

